"I disagree with Hillary [Clinton]. I don't think it's a right-wing conspiracy. I think it's more of a Polish conspiracy. I mean, just look at the news in the last year. We had Ted Kaczynski, we have Monica Lewinsky. You know we have these politicians that are getting hurt in these freak accidents, participating in a sport called 'ski.' So, you know, you put it together."-- Comedian Kevin Nealon, discussing the Lewinsky/Clinton sex scandal on "Larry King Live" last month.There's a fine line between significant trend and meaningless observation.

CALGARY, Alberta -- Kimmie Meissner concluded her first season skating among the sport's elite in spectacular fashion, and she'll now turn her attention to the next big event on her calendar: the school prom. "Well, I'm going with a friend who is a guy," she said, "but [he's] just my friend." But soon there might be more on her plate than picking out the perfect dress. The Bel Air 16-year-old, whose parents pride themselves on giving their daughter a normal upbringing, enjoyed a meteoric rise to the top of the sport's competitive ladder this season.

In the old days, the deal was simpler. Once every four years, an unknown in a tutu would skate right into America's heart. She would wave around a gold medal, smile a lot, and then enter a world of professional ice shows, Christmas television specials and hair care commercials.Well, it's sure not that way anymore.This is the age of made-for-television skating wars, endorsement contracts and book deals. It's the era in which teen-aged stars are transformed into millionaires, where an athlete's every bobble, injury and slump is picked over by media, fans, television executives and agents.

At 14, Kimmie Meissner already has beaten most of her peers in the figure skating world. But today, with the Winter Olympics 16 months away, she'll find out if it's soup yet as she faces the sport's elite in the Campbell's International Figure Skating Classic. The Fallston High School sophomore, who won the novice national title in 2003 and the junior title this year, is one of eight skaters in a field that includes the top three finishers in this year's world championships. Shizuka Arakawa of Japan and Sasha Cohen and Michelle Kwan of the United States - gold, silver and bronze, respectively - have plenty of global experience under their blades.

Psst, buddy, wanna rent a shot tower?The abandonment of City Life Museums will reverberate for years. If the city puts its past up for competitive bid, why not its soul?Save the Carroll Mansion! Call it a hotel and add a 30-story annex with public subsidy.Tara Lipinski is 15, with nowhere to go but down. Might as well turn pro.Pub Date: 4/10/98

The Pied Piper comes every generation in many guises and the late Marshall Applewhite is only one of them.This is 1997. Millenialism will get much worse in the next three years.Orioles ticket prices will go up until there are empty seats. -- Economics 101Tara Lipinski is on top of the world now, but Olympic Year she will be 16 and have to throw some body fat around.Pub Date: 3/31/97

CONGRATULATIONS are in order for Tara Lipinski, the 74-pound jumping machine who, at the age of 14, became the youngest U.S. ladies' figure skating champion in history in Nashville last weekend.This is good for the industry, uh, sport, guaranteeing another generation of little girls bugging their mothers for costly skates and costlier lessons.But it was tears for the favorite, Michelle Kwan, the womanly defending U.S. champion, who took a tumble and then another. The pressure that she, too, had once been too young to feel, hit her in maturity.

NAGANO, Japan -- Less than two hours before skating for gold, Tara Lipinski sat in her parents' hotel room, eating spaghetti, panicking."She looked at me and got a little glassy-eyed," said Lipinski's mother, Pat. "I said, 'What's the matter?' She said, 'I think I'm scared.'"I said, 'That's OK. This is the Olympics. You have every right to be scared. What do you want? It's not like you're going to a party.' "Actually, it turned out she was, but neither mother nor daughter knew that as they went through their pre-competition routine.

ICE SKATING is enjoying unprecedented popularity throughout America. Developers in the Baltimore region are responding by erecting an precedented number of new indoor rinks. In an area where ice time was so scare not long ago that hockey leagues routinely scheduled games and practices after midnight and figure skaters were perfecting double toe loops before the sun rose, this building spree is putting smiles on the faces of serious and casual skaters.Baltimore County's approval this month of a $5.3 million project in the Fullerton area, planned to include two National Hockey League-sized rinks, is the most recent manifestation of this boom.

THE NAGANO WINTER GAMES that begin tonight mark the end of an Olympic century. Frenchman Baron Pierre de Coubertin's campaign to revive the spirit of the ancient foot and chariot races of Olympia, Greece, took hold on the eve of this century with the first "modern Olympics" in Athens in 1896. Winter Olympics were added in 1924, in Chamonix, France.As the pageantry of the opening ceremonies unfolds like a lotus blossom, the XVIII Winter Games may come close to achieving de Coubertin's vision of an Olympics focused on competition and athletic appreciation, pure and simple.

Tara Lipinski, the Gen Y ice princess with the black Corvette and budding soap opera career, is in town this week with the "Stars on Ice" tour.So she wowed the world by winning the gold medal at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics. And, yeah, she just won the World Professional Figure Skating Championship earlier this month.And now, she's on an exhausting 62-city tour with Scott Hamilton, Kurt Browning, Kristi Yamaguchi and more skating superheroes. But don't worry about the spritely 17-year-old working herself to death.

Psst, buddy, wanna rent a shot tower?The abandonment of City Life Museums will reverberate for years. If the city puts its past up for competitive bid, why not its soul?Save the Carroll Mansion! Call it a hotel and add a 30-story annex with public subsidy.Tara Lipinski is 15, with nowhere to go but down. Might as well turn pro.Pub Date: 4/10/98

"I disagree with Hillary [Clinton]. I don't think it's a right-wing conspiracy. I think it's more of a Polish conspiracy. I mean, just look at the news in the last year. We had Ted Kaczynski, we have Monica Lewinsky. You know we have these politicians that are getting hurt in these freak accidents, participating in a sport called 'ski.' So, you know, you put it together."-- Comedian Kevin Nealon, discussing the Lewinsky/Clinton sex scandal on "Larry King Live" last month.There's a fine line between significant trend and meaningless observation.

NAGANO, Japan -- She was tough enough to become the youngest individual gold medalist in Winter Olympics history.Who's to say that Tara Lipinski isn't tough enough to survive?It's true, she might be too young for this. She might be overwhelmed by her fame. She might struggle to lead a normal adult life.Heck, even Lipinski seemed to recognize it's all downhill from here, not exactly a healthy thought for a 15-year-old."It went by so quickly," she said. "I was so happy, and almost a little sad. I was going to have to get off [the medal stand]

NAGANO, Japan -- Less than two hours before skating for gold, Tara Lipinski sat in her parents' hotel room, eating spaghetti, panicking."She looked at me and got a little glassy-eyed," said Lipinski's mother, Pat. "I said, 'What's the matter?' She said, 'I think I'm scared.'"I said, 'That's OK. This is the Olympics. You have every right to be scared. What do you want? It's not like you're going to a party.' "Actually, it turned out she was, but neither mother nor daughter knew that as they went through their pre-competition routine.

NAGANO, Japan -- They have shopped. They have practiced. They have tried to gain Olympic experiences even as their every moves have been cataloged and noted by judges, parents and the media.And now, they are ready to take over the Winter Olympics.Tomorrow, Michelle Kwan and Tara Lipinski will finally grab center stage with the start of the women's figure skating short program.All other competitors, even all other sports in Nagano, may now be dwarfed by two American teen-agers.Rarely, have two young Olympic performers faced such pressure or scrutiny.

At 14, Kimmie Meissner already has beaten most of her peers in the figure skating world. But today, with the Winter Olympics 16 months away, she'll find out if it's soup yet as she faces the sport's elite in the Campbell's International Figure Skating Classic. The Fallston High School sophomore, who won the novice national title in 2003 and the junior title this year, is one of eight skaters in a field that includes the top three finishers in this year's world championships. Shizuka Arakawa of Japan and Sasha Cohen and Michelle Kwan of the United States - gold, silver and bronze, respectively - have plenty of global experience under their blades.

THE NAGANO WINTER GAMES that begin tonight mark the end of an Olympic century. Frenchman Baron Pierre de Coubertin's campaign to revive the spirit of the ancient foot and chariot races of Olympia, Greece, took hold on the eve of this century with the first "modern Olympics" in Athens in 1896. Winter Olympics were added in 1924, in Chamonix, France.As the pageantry of the opening ceremonies unfolds like a lotus blossom, the XVIII Winter Games may come close to achieving de Coubertin's vision of an Olympics focused on competition and athletic appreciation, pure and simple.

In the old days, the deal was simpler. Once every four years, an unknown in a tutu would skate right into America's heart. She would wave around a gold medal, smile a lot, and then enter a world of professional ice shows, Christmas television specials and hair care commercials.Well, it's sure not that way anymore.This is the age of made-for-television skating wars, endorsement contracts and book deals. It's the era in which teen-aged stars are transformed into millionaires, where an athlete's every bobble, injury and slump is picked over by media, fans, television executives and agents.